Coconino County Fair, HB2305, And War With Syria (Weekly Update)

“It’s now Authoritarian vs. Libertarian. Since Democrats vs. Republicans has been obliterated, no real difference between parties…” –Matt Drudge

Coconino County Fair

This week was all about the Coconino County Fair. The Flagstaff Liberty Alliance booth was full of dedicated volunteers who worked extremely hard to get the message of liberty out. Between Friday and Monday we handed out hundreds of pieces of literature, over 150 liberty books and movies, and helped countless kids and adults take our constitution quiz.

The message of freedom really resonated with the people we talked to! Even with all the rain on Friday and Saturday we were able to accomplish all of our goals and hand out much more literature than we expected to.

Flagstaff Liberty Alliance members take time out for a photo at the Coconino County Fair (click to enlarge)

A few of the liberty books and movies we handed out at the Flagstaff Liberty Alliance booth (click to enlarge)

Last week I turned in a bunch of completed petitions for the HB2305 referendum. This morning I returned several more petitions filled with signatures that were collected at the Coconino County Fair. People are not happy with the excessive signature requirements that third party candidates now need to collect to achieve primary ballot access. They are very upset at the Republicans in the legislature for passing this bill. Unless there are more dirty tricks, I think it’s safe to say that we will see this referendum on the ballot.

And it’s not just Libertarians, Greens, Independents and Democrats who are lining up to sign the referendum petitions. Many Republicans in Arizona are also standing up for what is right and voicing their opposition to HB2305.

Mohave County Republican Chairman Ron Gould recently made headlines when he signed the HB2305 referendum and defended third parties.

Nearly half of the elected Republican precinct committeemen in Coconino County have signed the petition.

The Republican establishment is facing a massive backlash over their attempts to destroy third party candidates. Many Republicans who voted for HB2305 will lose primary or general elections in 2014. They’re already discovering that this vote will haunt them throughout their upcoming campaigns.

No U.S. Intervention In Syria

In solidarity with the “no war with Syria”protests happening worldwide, Flagstaff Liberty Alliance focused a lot of attention at the County Fair on educating people about what a non-interventionist foreign policy means. Syria is the big topic right now and everyone at the fair was interested in discussing it. We handed out a lot of Campaign For Liberty literature explaining what it means to have a non-interventionist foreign policy. The response was very receptive…even among Republicans who just a few years ago were calling Ron Paul weak on defense or an isolationist for saying the same exact thing.

Campaign For Liberty literature on what a non-interventionist foreign policy means. (click to enlarge)

I contacted my Congressperson Ann Kirkpatrick yesterday and asked her to vote no on war with Syria. Congressperson Paul Gosar recently issued this statement:

“The phones in my office are ringing off the hook and the mail is flowing in. Nearly all of the people are opposed to war in Syria. According to House leadership, a vote will be held next week. Where do you stand on US intervention in Syria? How would you recommend I vote?”

I encourage all of my readers to please contact their Congressperson to tell them to vote against war with Syria. You can find contact information for Congress here:

Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner and Republican House majority leader Eric Cantor have already endorsed President Obama’s war with Syria and that means there will be tons of pressure on Republicans in Congress to support an attack.

An angry Matt Drudge posted a series of tweets attacking Republican leadership for supporting the war this morning. As I post he has a poll on his website with only 8.63% of respondents supporting war and 91.37% opposed. Nearly 600,000 people have voted in the poll so far.

Flagstaff City Council Meeting

Tonight the Flagstaff City Council will be holding a work session to discuss the Regional Plan, election issues and a possible transportation tax. I will not be attending this meeting but I will be watching the stream from home and tweeting comments about it for Flagstaff Independent Press.

Several years ago Joe Ferguson started tweeting from Flagstaff City Council meetings for the Arizona Daily Sun. When he left the Sun he left a void on twitter. I have stepped up to try to keep getting that information out to the public. I use Ferguson’s old hashtag #FlagCouncil. You can find my tweets here: